Affected
by RageLikeRipred
Summary: Ariadne and Arthur's romance was never presented as intense or heavy. A series of one-shots with the same mind-set, this explores the relationship between the Architect and the Point Man without being extreme, and doing just enough to leave you affected.
1. Flashes

A/N: Hi! This is a series of one-shots for Arthur/Ariadne in the movie Inception! I've seen it twice and plan to see it in theatres about two more times. It has wound its way into my heart and is now my favorite movie, which is saying something because I've never truly had a favorite movie before. Inception and its brilliance just left me...affected. No pun intended.

These one-shots aren't going to be radically different from each other, so there will be some sense of continuity, but they are not meant to run as a story together. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Inception, it was all Christopher Nolan. If I did own it, there would be a sequel in the works revolving completely around Arthur because he's awesome and because the stroies of Cobb, Mal, Saito, and Fischer are resolved in my opinion. And Arthur is my desktop background... :D

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The room seemed to glow a creamy off-white color as the curtains swayed in sync with bed sheets that were affected by heavy winds. Everything was in ruins, chairs were tipped over, and glasses lay shredded on the carpet. Except, of course, for the one that Ariadne happened to step on.

With a sharp turn of the head, Ariadne found Mal, beautiful in a deep purple dress, to be staring at her with wide, maddened eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Cobb's dead wife asked as she stood up.

Ariadne hunched under her gaze and tried for a feeble explanation. "I'm, my name is-"

"I know who you are," Mal interrupted as if not wanting to waste time. "What are you doing here?"

The architect struggled to find a justifiable reason for her intrusion. Everything that raced through her head, she realized, sounded greedy, when she had only wanted to help Cobb. "I just wanted…to understand…"

Mal's lips tightened. "How could you understand?"

Ariadne didn't know, but that hadn't quite stopped her from trying, from dashing to the elevator while Dom Cobb was caught up in remembrance of his past. After all, she hadn't known exactly what to expect down in the basement of Cobb's memories.

"Do you know what it's like to be a lover? To be half of a whole?" Mal asked her.

No, she really didn't.

So she was surprised when Arthur's face flashed through her head at this question.

As Mal began what sounded like a well-rehearsed explanation of love pertaining to trains and (un)known destinations, Ariadne could not help but imagine dark, slicked-back hair and three-piece suits and never-ending staircases. And the harder she tried to shake the flooding images, the more persistent they seemed to be. What was this? The swarm of Arthur, Arthur, Arthur was only adding to her fear as foreign thoughts mixed with Mal's intimidating gaze.

"But it doesn't matter," Mal broke into Ariadne's thoughts.

And then Cobb was behind Ariadne saying, "because we'll be together."

As Cobb led her back to the elevator, she couldn't quite wait to get back up to consciousness.

Because no matter how suddenly they had arrived, Ariadne wanted to figure out what exactly these immediate thoughts of Arthur were.

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A/N: So, how was it? I really, really, appreciate your critique and constructive criticism, so please drop me a **REVIEW** to say what you liked about this particular one-shot, or some advice you have for me. Thanks so much for reading! I bold the word 'review' because if you don't bother to read the Author's Note, then you still see it really big and attention-getting! :D ...I can't help it, I'm a smiley person.


	2. Airplanes, Discoveries, and Amusement

A/N: Hey soooo...here's the second one-shot in the series. And yes, it is a series of one-shots as opposed to a full-length story. This is why they have somesense of continuity but don't really form a plot. Okay, so I got a pretty good response to the last one, and was too impatient to refrain from posting this, so it's here. Yay!

Disclaimer: I...I-I..I don't own Inception. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go cry in a corner. No, better yet, I'll go cry in a movie theater, during a repeat viewing of Inception.

**WARNING: This one-shot pretty much sucks. But I posted it anyway. It contains bored!Arthur. Enjoy if you can.**

* * *

Arthur took a seat in the first-class cabin of the airplane. He couldn't really bring himself to relax as he would soon be thrust into a dreamscape more complicated than he had ever experienced before.

Ariadne took the seat in front of him, and the Point Man wondered if she was scared. She must have been. She hadn't spent enough of her life entangled with shared dreams and extraction to avoid probing paranoia and thoughts like, "What if we miss the kick?"

He stared at the back of her first-class chair, for he had nothing else to do until the flight reached cruising altitude and inception began.

And then, he had the sudden urge to kick the back of Ariadne's seat. It seemed like a perfectly childish thing to do. Before Arthur could lift his perfectly polished shoe, though, he had to ask himself why he had the odd impulse to kick the architect's chair.

His instinctive and instantaneous answer to his own question was, "because it would get her to turn around."

But that confused him. Why did he need that?

Suddenly, Ariadne turned rapidly around to face him. Arthur's eyes widened, surprised as if she could read his thoughts and he was caught red-handed thinking about her.

But of course she couldn't see that. He was just being silly. He needed to get back in control like usual.

She nodded in Cobb's general direction. Arthur looked to the extractor, and saw that he was talking to Fischer, setting up. It was almost time.

He looked back to Ariadne. She smiled at him, and then turned back around.

Arthur just kept smiling at where her face had been two seconds ago.

Quickly, Arthur regained his control over the situation with Ariadne. It was two layers deep when an opportunity too good to miss came up. Plus, despite the now-known risk of the mission, he was bored.

As he explained that the projections were looking for him, he paused. "Quick, give me a kiss."

He was slightly surprised at how willingly she complied, how easily she trusted him.

When it was over, when the moment had passed, Ariadne pointed out that the projections were still looking at them. She had assumed that the kiss would have done something to prevent this somehow, as Arthur had expected her to.

The left corner of the point man's mouth tilted up. As he smirked, he said, "It was worth a shot."

He restrained himself from checking to see if she realized that he had known all along that the action would do nothing to deter his subconscious.

Instead, he chose to sit and contemplate the past two minutes.

He decided that what he had done was actually somewhat…charming.

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A/N: Was it okay, at least? Drop me a **REVIEW** to tell me :D I love those...HI! bye.


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